


Rope

by akire_yta



Series: promptfics - bandom and rpf [3]
Category: Skippy - Fandom
Genre: AU, Gen, akificlets, preslash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-10
Updated: 2013-08-10
Packaged: 2017-12-23 00:12:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/919696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: skippy and rope</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rope

"Haul!" the command came, bellowed across the deck. Mike ran between the teams, adding his muscle where needing, berating or praising as appropriate. A hundred men, shirtless and sweating under the hot tropical sun, heaved on the lines, pulling in tons of wet netting writhing with fish. The smell of hemp and brine and oil filled the air as the men set to with buckets and knives to pull out their catch and repair their nets for the dawn cast.

One by one, duties were done, until Mike was the only man left on deck, the rest of the crew down below for their meal. He walked the decks one last time, checking the folded piles of nets to ensure they were all repaired and ready, that the buckets were scrubbed and the ties made secure.

He was coiling a last line when he heard a splashing over the side. Mike leaned over the railing, eyes widening as he saw a man tugging on the pilot line that linked the ship to the spar that held their nets open. "Hey!" he called out, hands cupped around his mouth. The figure startled and splashed back under the waves

Mike leaned over the edge, craning to see. He opened his mouth to holler man overboard when a wave struck the ship and sent Mike tumbling into the sea himself.

He surfaced, spluttering and cursing the air blue. Shaking his hair off his eyes, he swam towards the trailing line before the ship moved past him and left him to drown.

He latched onto the line just as something brushed his feet. Shark? Mike looked around, startling back as something popped up a few feet away.

Not something - someone. The man from before. Up close, Mike could see he wasn't crew, but a stranger.

A stranger swimming in open sea. "Who are you?"

The stranger glared, bobbing easily with the low swell. "Who are you?" he spat back. "Stealing our fish! Fish thief!"

"Nick!" another voice called. The stranger, Nick, ducked away under the waves as another man surfaced. Mike stared at the bare, muscular chest, and swallowed hard. "By the stars, where is my brother...hey, you're one of those from the ships?"

"Fish thief!" echoed around from the other side of Mike's vessel. The new stranger ignored it

"You shouldn't be here, your kind doesn't seem to float well." He pointed at the ship, the line in Mike's hand. "Can you get back on top with that."

"Back aboard," Mike corrected, too many years of instructing the greenhands under his belt to stop. "It's back aboard."

The new stranger smiled, and Mike nearly slipped off the rope. "Well, you need to get back aboard. Need a hand?" He ducked under the waves, and Mike's eyes widened at the flash of a tail.

_Merman_

Then Mike felt hands on his ankles, and he was being boosted up enough that he could grab ahold of the deck edge, and from there climb his way back over the railing. He turned and looked back.

The merman and Nick were arguing. The merman had a look of tried patience as Nick bobbed and splashed around him. The merman said something, and Nick threw up his hands, dived under the water, and didn't resurface.

Mike cupped his hands. "I'm Mike," he called.

The merman turned, and raised his hand. "Kevin," the merman called back.

"Will I see you again?" Mike called.

Kevin shrugged, smiled, and dove away.

"He's a fish thief!" Mike thought he heard before the wind carried the ship too far to hear.

"Sir? Why are you all wet?"

Mike turned, patted the startled watch officer on the shoulder, and went to find dry clothes.


End file.
